While his recent output hasn’t touched the entertainment value of the likes of Edge of Tomorrow, The Bourne Identity, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Doug Liman seems to think he has a box office hit on his hands with his Jake Gyllenhaal-led Road House remake––but he’ll never know. After signing on to make a theatrical release for MGM, when Amazon acquired the company, they relegated it to a Prime Video-only release this March despite stellar test scores. The filmmaker has now weighed in at the trailer has arrived and an SXSW premiere has been announced, which the director will boycott.
“Contrary to their public statements, Amazon has no interest in supporting cinemas. Amazon will exclusively stream Road House on Amazon’s Prime. Amazon asked me and the film community to trust them and their public statements about supporting cinemas, and then they turned around and are using Road House to sell plumbing fixtures,” Liman told Deadline. “That hurts the filmmakers and stars of Road House who don’t share in the upside of a hit movie on a streaming platform. And they deprive Jake Gyllenhaal — who gives a career-best performance — the opportunity to be recognized come award season. But the impact goes far beyond this one movie. This could be industry shaping for decades to come.”
While we encourage you to read his full thoughts, one can watch the newly-unveiled trailer below.
Road House arrives on March 21 on Prime Video.